Page 49 - Complete Idiot's Guide to The Perfect Resume

04 0028633946 CH03 12/21/99 12:23 PM Page 31

Chapter 3 ➤ Winning Resume Wisdom

Notice how Trudy prioritized information on her resume (following) to make the most mar-
ketable items pop out at the reader. Because her degree was more marketable than her work
history, she decided to show it off by positioning her Education section near the top of her
resume. This organization helps the reader of this resume quickly see that she’s a new grad-
uate in human resources who worked her way through school. Trudy then de-emphasized
her former job titles by placing Work History at the bottom of the page and listing the job
titles after the company names.
When a busy manager receives your resume, she’ll skim it very
quickly to see whether she’s interested in reading it word-for-
word. For that reason, it’s vital that you place your material
according to how relevant it is to your job objective. Prioritizing
correctly will make your resume declare, “I’m the one you’re look-
ing for!” (You’ll read more about this concept in Part 2.)
By prioritizing the sections of your resume, you can highlight Terms of Employment
aspects that are most relevant to your job objective. For instance,
A section entitled Work History
you might wish to move your volunteer experience near the top
may include paid and unpaid
of your resume if it’s particularly meaningful to the job you’re
work because work is work,
applying for.
whether it’s done for free or for
hire. A section called Employ-
Drop Irrelevant Info ment History, on the other
hand, must include only paid
For the last two years, Christopher Bond spent most of his time work.
managing a family crisis, a situation he decided was not appropri-
ate to put on his resume. During that time span, he did some free-
lance catalog production for a former colleague.
Notice how Christopher constructed the Work History section on his resume without men-
tioning his personal situation, even though it consumed about 80 percent of his time and
energy.

Bonus Check
Rely on the “Thou shalt not confess” commandment if you have something you’d rather
not talk about such as one of the following:
➤ A family death
➤ Illness, injury, or disability
➤ A failed business venture
➤ Rehabilitation from substance abuse
Rather than list such off-limits topics, mention other, more positive things so that an
interviewer won’t even think to ask about your awkward issue.

31